Camille Claudel: The 19th century artist who has finally 'made' it

On 27th November, a very special collection of works by French sculptor and artist Camille Claudel will be coming to auction at Artcurial. The auction will celebrate the recent rise in popularity of this great artist, who, relatively speaking, has been rediscovered.

The resurgence of Claudel's work in the 20th century has its roots in the late 1970s, when enthusiasm for her work was researched amongst academic. By the 1980s, the works of Claudel were no longer unknown in the eyes of the general public, this was thanks to the written works of Anne Rivière (L'Interdite, 1983) and French actor and director Anne Delbée, who released her work on Claudel Une Femme in 1982.

Camille Claudel (left) and sculptor Jessie Lipscomb in their Paris studio in the mid-1880s

In 1984, the Sainte Crox museum in Poitiers and the Musée Rodin in Paris both held exhibitions on Claudel's work. Finally, the film Camille Claudel release in 1988 by Bruno Nuytten reinforced the French artist's reputation.

Today, two public spaces devoted to the works of Camille Claudel stand: the Museum in Nogent-sur-Seine, which opened this year and boasts the world's largest collection of works by the artist and the former presbytery of Villeneuve-sur-Fère will open in the spring of 2018. The latter will be a more intimate space with memories and anecdotal pieces from the artistic careers of Camille and Paul Claudel.

Artcurial are set to sell The Massary Collection, which includes seventeen sculptures by Claudel, a work on paper by the artist in addition to two sculptures in plaster by Rodin (Tête de l'Avarice and Tête de Saint-Jean-Baptiste.)

Tête de l'Avarice

Works in the sale encompass Claudel's career between the ages of 17 and 41, covering almost the whole period of her activity. The earliest work of the collection is Diane, 1881, one of the artist's oldest works to have been conserved.

The most recent work in the collection at Artcurial is l’Étude pour le buste de Paul Claudel à 37 and, dated 1905 and executed during a trip to the Pyrenees with her husband Paul.

Tête de Saint-Jean-Baptiste

All of the works in the Massay collection have never left the artist's family and most of them come from the Claudel house in Villeneuve-sur-Fère. The family moved to this house in 1869, when Claudel was four years old. This residence was the artist's anchor, the Massary collection remains the only great collection of works from the artist's family. It has been exhibited in many public show. The first took place in 1951, after Claudel's death in 1943, at the Musée Rodin thanks to Paul Claudel and Cécile Goldscheider.

Diane

The Massary collection was not shown again until 1984, at Rodin Museum in Paris and the Museum Sainte-Croix in Poitiers. In the 1990s, The Massary Collection travelled to Japan, America, Germany and Spain for several exhibitions.

l’Étude pour le buste de Paul Claudel à 37 ans

The most recent public presentation was held at La Piscine - Musée d’Art et d’Industrie André Diligent in 2014. The Camille Claudel au miroir d’un art nouveau show celebrated the 150th anniversary of the birth of the artist.